After to an
unsuccessful attempt at making a Jason Bourne film without Matt Damon or its
title character, the franchise has returned to business as usual, even if it
just feels like a collection of deleted scenes from the original trilogy.
Director Paul Greengrass also returns to the franchise in order to provide the
same nausea-inducing shaky camera work that he used in the first two sequels,
along with a barely significant storyline making transparent modern-day commentary
on issues of online privacy. None of this really matters, however, because the
film is more interested in endless chase scenes than it is the narrative.

We join Jason
Bourne (Damon) punishing himself for past indiscretions by enduring endless
bouts of underground boxing in Greece.
When former CIA employee Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) hacks into the government
mainframe, she discovers a secret folder about Bourne’s background with the
company, as well as evidence that a similar program has been started back up.
Taking this information to Bourne, Nicky unintentionally brings the attention
of the intelligence community back on the former operative who has taken
extreme measures to remain hidden.

In charge of
this investigation in Langley
is the head of the Cyber Ops Division, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander with an
often uncomfortably forced American accent). Although Lee appears to be an
advocate for reasoning with Bourne, the director of the CIA (Tommy Lee Jones)
secretly undermines her by siccing another one of his trained assassins
(Vincent Cassel) on the operation, with the sole purpose of eliminating Bourne
altogether. The primary reason for getting rid of him is to avoid allowing the
former operative to discover a conspiracy by the government to use a social
media platform (clearly modeled after Facebook) in order to spy on the American
public.

While the
integration of online privacy issues into the world of Jason Bourne updates the
film’s relevance, it often feels forced in a movie that is otherwise occupied
with more secrets in the title character’s background. At this point, one can
only hope that all of the secrets in Bourne’s past have been revealed. But even
with these two competing storylines, Jason
Bourne ultimately feels light on reasons for existing. There is little else
for Bourne to do but follow and be followed, with the screenplay giving the
main character less than 50 lines in the entire two-hour run-time.

Even the action scenes begin to feel
redundant. There are only so many times we can see Jason Bourne being followed
with jerky camera movement and tense musical scores before it becomes clear
that style is over-riding substance. It would be far more endurable if the
style were not so unpleasant, including camera work which makes discerning the
action more difficult than rewarding. Even an impressively spectacle-driven
climactic car chase on the Las Vegas
strip isn’t enough to save the film from feeling like a watered down repeat.

The 4K Ultra HD
release for Jason Bourne has its strengths,
but it also makes the film’s weaknesses somewhat more apparent. The visuals are
just not than impressive, though I admit to having little objectivity when it
comes to the unnecessary shaky camera work and heavy use of a zoom lens within
Greengrass films. And there just isn't enough color in the photography to warrant the upgrade, save the final showdown in Vegas. What does feel greatly enhanced is the immersive audio, as
this often has more impact that the disorienting visuals. Even if I often had
trouble telling what was happening, at least it sounded cool.

This release
also comes with a Digital HD copy, as well as a Blu-ray disc, which includes
the film’s special features. There is a three-part feature about the fight
training, choreography, and its relevance to the narrative. There are also
several featurettes on the film’s chase scenes, including the one taking place
in Athens and the one shot on the Las Vegas strip. The last
extra is a generic featurette which discusses the elements of the film,
focusing primarily on the return of Damon and Greengrass.

With the flood
of bad to mediocre zombie films released regularly, the first Dead Rising film adaptation stood apart
thanks to a bit of creative filmmaking and a few relevant allegories for modern
society. Planned merely months after the release of the first film, Dead Rising: Endgame continues a pattern
of fairly transparent political commentary, especially for those living in
terror of a xenophobic Trump administration. The irony is that Dead Rising and its sequel were both
made in Canada.

Considering how
innovative actor John Krasinski’s directorial debut was, I was surprised to
find his second attempt somewhat derivative. With Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, he had the near-impossible task
of adapting a collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace into a
coherent narrative, and he succeeded with artistry and skill, which is why The Hollars feels so blandly uninspired.
Instead of trying to do something new, Krasinski has chosen to work in a
narrative that has all but become the official genre of independent filmmaking:
the dysfunctional family dramedy.

Though firmly
planted in the wuxia tradition of martial arts narratives, Call of Heroes has a story that most resembles the western genre. A
small group of moral individuals must stand up to invading bullies in a rural
village, who are threatening to harm innocent citizens. And these elements of
the film work fantastically, though there are pacing problems and an uneven
tone that occasionally drag the dependable narrative down.

Studios may be
narrow-mindedly focusing on making films that create or extend franchises, from
prequels and sequels to remakes and spin-offs, but they really should pay more
attention to horror movies if profit is truly their largest concern. Don’t Breathe was made for a mere $10
million dollars (for perspective, the Independent Spirit Awards will allow
films to be categorized as an independent with a budget as high as $20 million)
but made $140 million at the box office. Horror movies are incredibly
lucrative, partially because they don’t require the budget of a Marvel or a
Star Wars film.

The film
industry has become a strange beast in recent years, where Award-winning
directors such as Charlie Kaufman are unable to get studios to take a chance on
his critically acclaimed visions, but they will recklessly pillage any and all
franchises for unoriginal dribble in hopes that it will become an international
cash cow. It would be easy to become disheartened by the lack of creativity in
the film industry, if independent filmmaking hadn’t found a way to pick up the
slack. Kaufman eventually funded the award-winning Anomalisa through crowd
sourcing, and Hell or High Water was
made independent of the creatively-crippled studio system.

Howard’s End was the third adaptation of
an E. M. Forster novel by longtime film team, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant,
and may very well be their greatest success. It was an unlikely choice,
especially since Forster himself admitted to disliking all of the characters
within his own story, but the nuanced Merchant Ivory production somehow makes
them all more sympathetic without removing any of their many flaws. And despite
some ugliness in the personalities of the characters, this is contrasted by the
beautiful photography of the film, which has been given a wonderful new 4K
restoration for its 25th Anniversary release.

Illumination
Entertainment (an animation production company owned by Universal Studios) has
established a distinct style in their releases, offering a welcome variation
from the type of animated movies being made by Disney and Pixar. This is
similar to the contrast that Disney once had with Warner Bros. animation, which
makes sense considering how much the Illumination Entertainment titles seem to
resemble the classic Looney Tunes style of comedy chaos. This was a welcome
return to style, especially since Warner Bros. have been far more interested in
the superhero franchise and have dedicated most of their attention on a string
on animated comic book movies (even including a Lego Movie spin-off dealing exclusively with the toy version of
Batman).

For a film that
is trying as hard as it is to appeal to the hipster crowd, Baked in Brooklyn is remarkably outdated. And even if it weren’t
too late to jump on the overcrowded bandwagon filled with films and TV shows
about marijuana, Baked in Brooklyn
isn’t really about marijuana at all. Even worse, it isn’t very good. While too
disconnected from real life to effectively carry out any of the dramatic
elements, it is an even bigger crime that a film being sold as a stoner comedy
has absolutely no humor.

The acting is so
phenomenal in Cardboard Boxer that it
makes the laziness of the screenplay all the more shameful. Rather than relying
on the brutal realism of the situation, first-time screenwriter and director
Knate Lee (who previously worked as cinematographer and producer on the Jackass movies under the name of Knate
Gwaltney) forces contrived situations onto his characters. No matter how
powerful Thomas Haden Church’s
performance is or how admirable the message of Lee’s screenplay might be, no
amount of the film’s strengths can make up for the emotional manipulation used
to get that message across.